Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester (8 July 1640 – 13 September 1660) was the youngest son of Charles I, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and Henrietta Maria of France. He is also known as Henry of Oatlands.
From the age of two, Henry and his sister Elizabeth were separated from their family during the English Civil War and became prisoners of Parliament. For several years, the children were constantly transported from one residence to another due to the plague raging in London. They also periodically changed their governesses and guardians to those more loyal to the government. In 1645, Henry and Elizabeth were joined by their elder brother James, Duke of York, who found himself in a difficult financial situation. In 1647, Charles I was arrested and during the years 1647–1648, he was allowed to see his children several times. In April 1648, James fled the country; it was probably planned that he would take Henry with him, but Elizabeth was afraid to let her younger brother go. When in 1649 Charles I was sentenced to death, he, fearing that Henry would be proclaimed king and made a puppet of the government, took an oath from his 8-year-old son not to take the crown for anything while both of his older brothers were alive.
After the execution of Charles I, Scotland proclaimed his eldest son Charles II as their sovereign. In the summer of 1650, he landed in Scotland, which prompted Parliament to send the children of the late monarch to Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, where their father had previously been imprisoned. Before leaving for Carisbrooke, Henry and Elizabeth were stripped of all titles and privileges. Shortly after arriving on the Isle of Wight in September 1650, Henry's sister fell ill and died. Henry remained at Carisbrooke until the following year, when, with the permission of Oliver Cromwell, he returned to the continent, where he eventually joined his mother in Paris. With Henrietta Maria, whom the prince had not seen for eleven years, Henry did not have a good understanding: the prince was an ardent Protestant, and his mother was an implacable Catholic. The Queen, against the wishes of her late husband and eldest son, tried to convert Henry to Catholicism, but this only deteriorated their relationship. Henry went to his brother Charles in Cologne. In 1657, the prince fought on the side of the Spanish against France with his brother James. In May 1659, Charles restored to his brother the title of Duke of Gloucester, which Henry had been deprived of by Parliament in 1650, and bestowed the title of Earl of Cambridge.
After the restoration of the monarchy in England in 1660, Henry accompanied his brother during his return to Britain. There Henry received a number of appointments, but before the coronation of Charles II, he contracted smallpox and died. He was buried in the vault of Mary, Queen of Scots in Westminster Abbey, where his elder sister Mary, who also died of smallpox, was buried a few weeks later.
Birth and early years
Henry was born on 8 July 1640 at Oatlands Palace near Weybridge in Surrey as the youngest son and penultimate child of King Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France. In total, the royal couple had nine children—four sons and five daughters; the eldest son of the royal couple, Charles James, was either stillborn or died immediately after birth, the fourth daughter, Catherine, died less than half an hour after baptism, and the third daughter, Anne, died at the age of three. Since Henry was born after the death of Charles James, throughout his life he was the third son of the King. where both showed great courage. When the city fell, Henry managed to escape capture by gathering some of the scattered troops and making a desperate breakthrough through the enemy battle formations. In the battle, the prince lost his sword, and while Villeneuve, the groom of the Prince de Ligne, was looking for the lost weapon, Henry covered him with a pistol.
On 26 February 1657 or 1658, Charles II knighted his brother, on 27 October 1658 he introduced him to his Privy Council, and on 13 May 1659 he restored to him the title of Duke of Gloucester and additionally bestowed him the title of Earl of Cambridge.
Stuart Restoration and death
thumb|18th-century posthumous print of Henry, Duke of Gloucester, by [[George Vertue]]
Following the restoration of the monarchy in England in 1660, Henry accompanied his brother Charles II to his homeland; the costs of their trip were again paid by Parliament. Henry settled in the Palace of Whitehall and on 30 June 1660 he was already sitting in the House of Lords. On 13 June he was appointed Chief Steward of Gloucester, and on 3 July he became Ranger of Hyde Park.
Early in September 1660, Henry contracted smallpox, an epidemic that raged in London. The prince died on 13 September 1660 before his brother Charles II's coronation. On 21 September, his remains were moved to Somerset House, from where they were taken by river to Westminster. He was buried in Westminster Abbey in the vault of Mary, Queen of Scots. Henry's death overshadowed the joy of a family reunion. A few weeks later Henry's elder sister Mary, Dowager Princess of Orange, also died of smallpox; on her deathbed, she wished to be buried next to her brother.
The Earl of Clarendon, an English historian, statesman and father of the Duke of York's first wife, wrote enthusiastically of Henry as a fine youth, "of the most manly understanding that I ever knew" and as "a prince of extraordinary hopes, both from the comeliness and gracefulness of his person and the vivacity and vigour of his wit and understand." Gilbert Burnet believed that the prince "was of a temper different from that of his two brothers. He was active and loved business, was apt to have particular friendships, and had an insinuating temper, which was generally very acceptable." According to Burnet, "his death was much lamented by all, but more particularly by the King, who was never in his whole life seen so much trouble as he was on that occasion."
Charles II planned to betroth Henry to Princess Wilhelmine Ernestine of Denmark to reinforce the English-Danish maritime alliance, and King Frederick III of Denmark also agreed to the marriage, but the prince's early death prevented this union. Henry's death led to the fact that the throne eventually passed to William III and Mary II—the children of Henry's older sister and older brother, respectively, and later to the House of Hanover.